


The Deal

by StarRoseColors



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Deal with a Devil, Family, Fiction, Gen, Grim Reapers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Magic, Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:28:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarRoseColors/pseuds/StarRoseColors
Summary: When the Grim Reaper is your soon-to-be uncle, you expect odd things.Including the boy Uncle Hades drags over your doorstep.
Kudos: 1





	The Deal

It was midnight, and Hestia Helmer was staring at the menu of a movie.

She and her Aunt Persephone had decided to have a movie night. The movie was long over and the menu had gone silent. The older woman had fallen asleep, snoring softly. Hestia was half asleep, still staring at the screen.

She should turn it off, but she was so warm…

The door slamming open jolted Hestia awake, her startled body warming the room further. She resisted a groan when her soon to be uncle entered. She liked Hades, she really did, it was just that he and Persephone liked to test their bed springs too much. Hestia had lost too much sleep in her life.

She looked over the back of the couch.

Then blinked.

Behind Hades, a scrawny teenage boy was being dragged by his ankle. She winced in sympathy as her uncle tugged him hard over the threshold. 

Further warmth flooded the room. It would’ve been too warm for a regular human. “Hades?” Persephone had awaken.

At the sound of his fiance’s sleep slurred voice, he grinned. “Persephone, light of my life, you know how I hate bringing work home with me, but tonight I must ask for your assistance.” He paused, probably to lick dry lips. “It has been so long since I have found someone to help around here…he is not my first choice, but he is capable.”

The door shut behind him.

Persephone hummed, lighting a cigarette from the pack in her pocket. She took a deep breath and released the smoke. “Where did you fetch him from dear?” She squinted, eyes and hair turning curious copper. “He looks familiar.”

“He goes to my school.” Hestia said, studying the boy. Now she had gotten a better look, she recognized the raven hair and forming beard on his jawline. She quietly hopped over the couch, landing beside him. He stirred slightly at the noise. “His family goes to church.”

“The Church of Holiness?”

“No, the old one.”

Persephone laughed. “Good. That means I don’t have to bash his head in. Greasy little rats, being all neo religious and buying up half of the town…” Her aunt’s grumbles continued. Hestia ignored them, poking him slightly. He didn’t move.

“So…what are we going to do with him? Since he’s dead and all.” Probably recently dead, seeing how he hadn’t said a word. She absently wondered how the contract came to be. “Is he staying here?”

“No, dear one.” Hades said, patting her head. “He has requested to stay with his siblings. He’ll take the night shift during school days and day shifts for the rest of the time.”

Made sense. Hades was the only one in the household that actually liked night. Technically, he wasn’t even part of the household yet. He was engaged to Persephone and had his own apartment in town. Everybody ignored that part, since Hades was the town undertaker. Of course he was also the person who collected the dead souls. Not that people knew that part. Just that he was the person who prepared bodies for funerals and was the lover of the town’s witch and heretic.

Hestia fit in their little outcast group just fine.

“So, how…?”

“Trying to bring back his sister. He had prepared- she had only been dead a few minutes.”

“It backfired, didn’t it?” Bringing the dead back rarely went well, no matter how prepared you were. The results often ended up…messy.

Hades nodded. “Little pieces everywhere. I was talking to his head for a bit.” He imitated the pose from Hamlet, staring at an imaginary skull.

She gave the boy another poke. “How’d ya get him to agree?”

“I brought back his sister in exchange for work.”

Jason Mallory would never pay off that debt. At least, not in his human lifetime.

Persephone had finished her ranting in time to hear that last part. She grinned, moving with slick grace to embrace him. Her hair went a lusty red. “You’ve grown soft.”

Hades’ eyes dilated with equal lust as he hugged her back. “And whose fault is that?” He handed his mask to Hestia. Slowly, the two headed upstairs. “Hex, be a good girl and take care of him, will you?”

“How am I-?!” She was cut off by the door slamming shut.

And then there was two in the parlor. Hestia sighed, pulling her uncle’s skull mask on only to push it on top of her head. She glanced around before her gaze turned to the boy. Violet eyes were open, meeting hers. His were dulled by sleep. She crouched next to him.

“Was it worth it?”

There was a moment, then an answer. It was barely a whisper.

“Yes.”

She sighed, standing up.

She needed her boots. And a smoke.

**Author's Note:**

> I take original writing prompts here and over at writingamongther0ses and fic prompts here and at starsfic.


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